Foodies Gone Wild

As part of his strenuous, on-the-ground reporting for his recentVanity Fair article about “totalitarian” chefs and their increasingly elaborate tasting menus, “Tyranny—It’s What’s for Dinner,” author Corby Kummer endured a five-hour, 15-course meal at Eleven Madison Park, the Manhattan restaurant owned by chef Daniel Humm. Here is Kummer’s course-by-course, or round-by-round, report, along with the approximate time each course was served.

By the time our party of four is seated, a bit after 1:15, the restaurant is two-thirds full, which means not very full, given that Eleven Madison Park lost a number of seats in the remodelings that began with former owner Danny Meyer and his quest for four stars in The New York Times—a struggle that came to successful fruition following the hiring, in 2006, of Daniel Humm as executive chef and the pouring of money into kitchen and dining-room renovation.

The two-level room looks somewhat sleepy, and the parties occupying the tables appear to be from out of town: they take pictures of themselves and the food. One well-groomed blond man at the closest table is dining alone; we judge him to be a restaurant professional here on a recon mission, though he neither takes pictures nor spends much time on his iPhone.

Oddly, as sparsely full as the dining room seems, we have great difficulty attracting the attention of a server to ask to get the meal under way. We eventually succeed.